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Monday, May 28, 2012

6-time National Champion's Report

It's Hammertime!

Hello everyone!

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you already probably know it. Even if
you don’t follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you may still know it. Anyways, I WON
NATIONALS. For the 6th time to be exact. I know most of you are dying
to know about how my tournament went and what deck I played so I won’t bother
you with the introductions any more than necessary.

The deck I played was Darkrai EX/Tornadus EX. However, the list differs probably
from everything you have seen before and the deck fundamental strategy differs
from other Darkrai decks as well. I played the deck a lot and made the decision
to play it a long time ago. I won’t probably be playing it in the World
Championships because I would like to go rogue in the Worlds, so I don’t mind
giving the deck list for everyone. I hope you’ll have a great success with this
deck as I did and if you play it, it would be cool if you let me know about it
and how you did with it. E-mail, FB and Twitter are all easy ways to get touch
with me.

Anyways, let’s start the report. Here’s the final list, which won me a trip to
Hawaii. I like to call the deck “Hammertime”. As soon as you see the list, you
probably know why.

The deck functioned perfectly throughout the whole tournament and there is not
much tweaking to do in my opinion. I love how the deck worked and fixed it a
lot in the previous months. I won’t be getting too in-depth with the deck in
this entry but will make an entry about the deck probably later this week. However,
there are few things I would like to point out about the deck right now.

- Sableye is the most underrated card in the whole format (It’s especially sick
with Hammer trainers and Random Receiver).
- I ran Enchanced Hammers instead of Lost Remover because I feel like the Lost
Removers disrupt the deck’s “feng shui” – yes, I’m superstitious about Pokémon
TCG
- The deck autowins any deck that can’t energy accelerate (as you will see from
the report)
- The deck has a great mirror match-up against any Darkrai variants thanks to
Hammers
- I hate DCE in this deck because there is nothing worse than attaching a DCE
to Darkrai EX and then get OHKOed by Mewtwo EX
- The deck’s only goal is to be faster than your opponent, it really doesn’t
matter if you have a slow start because thanks to Sableye and Hammers, you can
slow your opponent down a lot as well
- The deck is eaten alive by Vileplume

Here’s the points I wanted to make. Well, let’s get into the report. I was
afraid that Masters would have very few players but gladly 60 Masters turned
out to the tournament. The sad part was that it meant that probably no 4-2’s
could make the top. You needed at least a 5-1 to get to the top cut or a sick
tie break with 4-2 result. Thankfully I had two byes so I would have a sick tie
break if it came to that.

1. Round Bye Number One

I went to toilet.
1-0

2. Round Bye Number Two

I ate some food.
2-0

It’s always nerve-wrecking to start the tournament with 2 byes. It’s good but
at the same time you’ll play against a person that already has won two games. For
you, it’s the tournament’s first game and if you lose the first game of the
tournament, it never is good for you.

3. Round (Darkrai EX/Tornadus EX)

Nice, a mirror match to the beginning. Usually I hate mirrors because they
depend so much on luck (especially with the current rules) and can just end up
into prize racing. However, as I have a huge edge in the mirrors thanks to my
disruption, I was pretty confident. He started the game but couldn’t get a T1
energy attachment. At that point I knew already that I was in a very strong
situation. If you want to win a deck with a lot of Hammers in it, you need
every single energy attachment, you can get. I got of a decent start with
Smeargle and while he got a T2 DCE (which I hammered away as soon as DCE landed
on the bench), he had no chance. He portraited me and saw that next turn I
would have Darkrai EX ready to attack. At the same time he hadn’t any energy on
the field or basic energy in the discard pile and decided to scoop for a lunch
break. The game would have been over the next turn, I would have started
attacking.
3-0

Lunch break. I hate lunch breaks. I love to play lots of games in a row and
lunch breaks usually disrupt my tempo in tournaments.

I wasn’t sure what he played but I knew that he once played 6 Corners. He
opened with Heatmor and benched some different Pokémon on the bench. He hit 20
for my Darkrai EX with Heatmor and DCE. I knew my strategy as soon as I saw
what the deck has – infinite Hammer time. I started to run through my deck to
get every single Junk Arm/Hammers to my discard pile so I could just Junk Hunt
them over and over again once he had run out of energy. The deck played only
special energy so it was a very easy task thanks to my 2 Enhanced Hammers. He
noticed very quickly what was happening but there was nothing he could do about
it. I discarded all his energy with Junk Hunt + Hammers combo and he decked
out. Autowin is an autowin and there’s nothing you can do about it.
4-0

I added the 2nd Enhanced Hammer and 3rd Sableye only a
night before the tournament and after that match I was very happy that I did
so. The cards I ended up cutting were 1-1 Weavile line. Later in the tournament
I missed my Weavile…

5. Round (Darkrai EX/?)

This was a downer pairing, which meant that I needed to win the game. Otherwise
it would screw up my opponent’s percentage. Fortunately I got a god start in
this match. I started with Sableye and got a T2 Darkrai EX with the help of
Shaymin. He struggled with my fast start and the only thing I saw was 2 Darkrai
EXs and 2 Sneasels.
5-0

6. Round (Zekrom/Eelektrik/Mewtwo EX)

Well, I was in the top cut already so I had no pressure. However, this
match-up was once again an autowin. The reason for this was that he played 30
HP Tynamos. In this metagame you can’t afford using 30 HP Tynamos, otherwise
you’ll be slaughtered by any Darkrai variants. 90 Eelektrik and 30 to Tynamo is
just too deadly.
6-0

Interesting fact: even though I have won Nationals 5 times before, I have NEVER
gone X-0 in the Swiss rounds. Usually I have horrible luck on my side (horrible
opening hands or donks) so I was very happy how well my deck functioned. Anyways,
after the swiss the top8 looked liked this. I’m not 100% sure about the
placements in 3-6 places.

My big brother lost in the last round with the same deck as mine to the 6
corners variant. I don’t know how he succeeded in it but somehow he did. Also,
I was very surprised that I was the number 1 seed because I played against 2
downer pairings, very weird.

Top8 Zoroark/Weavile/Darkrai EX

Game 1.

I didn’t know what he played and the last time I saw him playing, he was
playing CMT. I mulliganed 2 times, he went first and I had a lone Sableye as my
starter. I was very afraid of the donk. However, he flips over a Zorua and a
Sneasel and I’m relieved. Thanks to Special Darkness energy the match-up is
very good. Also, the Hammers disrupt the deck’s Zoroark-flow so badly that I
have a huge upper hand in the match-up. The game went exactly as planned. I had
a good start thanks to the Sableye and started Hammering his energy away. Once
I got my Darkrai EX set-upped, one Darkrai took 4 prizes until it was KOed. After
that, the 2nd Darkrai EX took care of the rest.
1-0 (7-0)

Game 2.

This was pretty much a replay of the first match but he got a very slow start
even without my disruption (except for one early Catcher). I think he didn’t KO
a single Darkrai EX before he scooped the game. There really was nothing he
could do as long as I had a good opening hand.
2-0 (8-0)

The game were over pretty quickly so I started to look at the other games. I
knew that I only had one difficult match-up in left in the top cut. And it was
the Kumis.dec, which had Vileplume in it. My deck runs about 30 trainers so if
50% of my deck was useless, how could I win? Well, unfortunately I needed to
find out.

He started the game and there was only one thing I knew for sure – I couldn’t
give him Twins before he set-upped the Vileplume. If I went aggro, I would be
doomed because his Twins would be activated and there was nothing I could to
with my trainers. I tried to draw into my Eviolites to my Darkrai EXs and
set-up a double Oddish KO for the same turn but I was one turn late. I didn’t
draw into any Eviolites and he draw into the Vileplume just at the right
moment. One turn later and I would’ve gotten a double KO on his Oddishes. Well,
the match went pretty much downhill after that. I was stuck with my trainers and
Sableye was useless as well. He kept Seekering his damaged Pokémon and moving
energy around. I was completely destroyed.
0-1 (8-1)

Game 2.

The reason why I think that I’m a good player is that I’m very adaptable in
new and difficult situations. Adaptability is something that everyone needs to
train. It’s something that you will get only by playing a lot and with a lot of
different decks. I’ve played 9 years competitively know and I was still
destroyed in the game 1 because I didn’t know what to do. However, this was a
best-of-three series so I still had a chance for a comeback. In this game I
went first (obviously) and decided to gamble. I could’ve gotten a T2 Darkrai EX
with draw supporters but when I looked at my hand after a PONT – I saw another
option. I could got a T1 Darkrai EX if I got rid of every card in my hand. Desperate
times need desperate measures so I went for T1 option and hoped I would top
deck or draw SOMETHING in the next few turns. However, I draw into every single
useless card in my deck or 3-4 turns.He
finally got Plume up when I was 2-6 ahead in prizes and I still hadn’t draw
into any good trainers/supporters so he had a chance. Thankfully the aggression
put him in a very difficult spot and he just couldn’t draw into everything he
needed, and as the time was on my side, he decided to scoop the game since he
saw no room for a comeback. Phew.
1-1 (9-1)

Game 3.

I knew that the upper-hand was in the beginner’s side so I wasn’t too
confident. Also, my start wasn’t that fast PLUS he Sage’d himself a T2
Vileplume. I had used 1 trainer card in my first turn and now the rest of them
were completely useless. However, after the two games I played, I was much
wiser about the match-up. There was no need chance for quick KOs since I was
trainer locked and Terrakion would Retaliate as soon as I put Darkrai EX to the
active position. The match was one of the most difficult matches, I’ve ever
played and I’m sad that it wasn’t recorded. We both made perfect choices during
the game and the crowd was literally holding their breaths. It’s one of those
games you just can’t explain- you have to see it to believe it. It belongs to
my all-time top5 matches easily. I made no mistakes and neither did my
opponent. Perfect game from great decks and players, nuff’ said. Time ran out
and we looked at the table for a moment. I noticed that I had the win, no
matter what my opponent did in his 2 turns. I’m pretty sure that I would’ve won
the game even without the time because all his Pokémons were nearly KOed. Great
game!
2-1 (10-1)

After my game there was still the other top4 game left. It was as epic as my
third match. The games were 1-1 when the players got in a sudden death. In the
first turn Jouni (the Finnish CP leader) decided to make the game interesting
by using N turn one because his hand was so crappy. Sudden Death + N =1 card
for both players. After a few turns of draw&passing his opponent (the 6
corners variant player from my swiss rounds) got everything he needed to OHKO
Jouni’s energyless Mewtwo EX with Eviolite and won the game.

Theorymonical autowin match-up in the Nationals’ finals? Fine with me. Me,
my opponent and the audience knew the match-up and I would say that the games
were played in pretty laid-back manners. Once I got the Hammers + Junk Hunt
combo going in T2, my opponent knew it was over.
1-0 (11-1)

It’s just crazy and I still can’t comprehend it. I’m a 6-time National Champion
of Finland. A country that even has two World Champions and one of the most
talented player bases in the World. Of course I was happy as a man can be but
at the same time I was confused – I did it AGAIN.

The deck worked very well throughout the tournament as you could see and it was
built to perfection. A great deck combined with some innovative playing in a
tough spot got me my victory. I could be proud of myself since I did great job
in building the deck and playing the deck.

I hope I can come up with good result in the World Championships as well. Even
though I have attended in 6 World Championships – I have missed both Hawaii
Worlds, so I’m very excited to go to Hawaii to play some Pokémon TCG.
Historically Hawaii is a great place for Finnish Pokémon TCG since Tom R. won
Masters’ Worlds in Hawaii in 2007. My best placement in the Worlds is “only” top8
so far and I’m hoping planning to advance further this year.

To the end, props and slops.

Props:

+ 6th National Championship
+ Matti Kettunen for card loans during the whole season (I own no Darkrai EXs,
Mewtwo EXs or Tornadus EXs)
+ You for reading my blog
+ My gf went 4-2 with a deck I built a day before the tournament
+ Everyone for their comments during the whole season – it’s been a great year
for me and my blog!
+ Yuki-san for the great discussion about decks during the whole season!
+ Julia for translation help
+ Matti Kettunen for card loans during the whole season
+ The deck worked perfectly
+ My big bro for playtesting the deck
+ First Hawaii worlds for me
+ Matti Kettunen for card loans during the whole season
+ Kumis.dec
+ Everyone who cheered for my victory
+ GO+ Jouni L. for a great season
+ Matti Kettunen for card loans during the whole season
+ The whole year has been great for me personally
+ Players, who topcutted without Darkrai EX
AND
+ Matti Kettunen for card loans during the whole season

Slops:

- No Scholarships this year
- Not so many too difficult games

Once again, thanks for reading and thank you everyone who wished me luck in
FB/Twitter. It’s great to play when you know that people are interested how you
do – it’s gives extra incentive for an already fun game. I still have the last
struggle on 12th of June when is my entrance exams so before that I
won’t be as active as before in my blog but after that everything will be back
to normal.

Congrats again Esa, I was definitely one of the people who were dying to read your report after you FBed you won nationals LOL. On a another note: when I saw the two enhanced hammers I was like -- you run 4 lost removers?! (Cuz that's the only reason I came up with immediately for why people would run that in the current format). Then I saw you said "feng-shui" haha. Guess that's what corrected your usually bad luck :)

Congratulations for 6th national championship!I thought Santtu K. had chances to make it into top-8 judging from our matches in league but seeing him to make it into finals was a great surprise. I wish great luck for Team Finland for the Worlds.

I also had a feeling that Lost Remover or Enhanced Hammer will be crucial to defeat Darkrai decks, and because of the hype and genuine power of Darkrai, I knew it was going to be a very important card in beating Darkrai.

Hi!Great job Esa, It's an amazing victory and a great "palmarès" (winner of a 6th national)!!Have you got some ways to find Santtu K's list and Petri T's lits, these decks seem to be very nice and powerfull too!And, hammer lines are very great idea! You build an other great magical deck!! What skill!!!

I want to ask about Sableye in the deck. I agree that getting back trainers is super useful, but I find it very difficult to use Sableye's attack at any time other than the start of the game - the need to hit for damage each turn is just too great.

So how/when do you tend to use Sableye's attacks? How often did you attack with it during the tournament?

Amazing Esa! I'm not surprised the mighty hammer brought many decks to their knees based on the great number of special energies I see in decklists recently. You are bold to use Sableye + hammers. I'm shocked your Sableye didn't get KO'd all the time!

Yeah, but everyone (me included) thought the hammers were just some random japanese stapple, like Bianca. Personally I saw that list like 3 or 4 months ago and never figured out the sableye/hammers combo.

Btw I'm looking forward to your worlds' rogue, though the season already ended for me.

Matt91: Thanks a lot! Haha, yeah you're right that I should've thanked Matti more for his card loans.

DShuntblaster: I'm glad that no one run things like Steelix Prime or Klinklang so not running Lost Remover didn't hurt me. Maybe feng shui helped me after all!

Crawdaunt: Thanks! Yeah, I thought it was interesting as well but maybe he set-upped his Tynamos very quickly in games against Darkrai decks. That's the only option.

Yako: Yeah, you should try Sableye, it's a great card!

LuffyMcDuck: Thanks!

Nintendan: Indeed, disruption is what you need to have a good mirror match-up.

SHINING: Thanks, I'm glad to hear that!

baby mario: Haha, sounds like a legit topic for an article, lol.

Fuzzy: You're faster and don't have to worry about Terrakions thanks to Hammers. Terrakion isn't a real threat as long as you play wisely and they don't have Vileplume.

Anonymous1: 1) What do you do against mewtwo EX? - Hammer their energy away and take 2 free prizes.

2) When do you use Tornadus EX?- Only against pure fighting decks or for donking. Usually only in emergency situations.

3) Why there is no switch or more shaymin/SSU/max potion?- 2nd Shaymin would be nice but this deck just doesn't have room for everything. This deck could easily have 70 cards if that was legal.

Thanks and hope that helped!

HG22: Ok, maybe I should be more careful with the word "autowin". It's not an autowin. It's just a good match-up thanks to Hammers. But yeah, it's ALMOST an autowin when they run 30 HP Tynamos. I don't believe Zekrom is a tier1 deck if Darkrais gonna fill up the whole metagame.

Qwerty: This deck's focus is Darkrai EX. You only load Tornadus EXs manually against pure fighting decks while disrupting with Sableye. I'll get back to that in the article. Haha, yeah, but Sami has a chance to get his (5th?) victory this year.

Anthony Smith: Haha, thanks!:D

Anonymous2: Thanks! Yeah, I have their decklists and am going to do an article for both of their decks in the future as well!

JC: Thanks, hope I can deliver a good result from Worlds as well!

Myles: I used Sableye in every game excluding one (When I got T1 Darkrai EX). You don't usually have time to use it in the middle of the game but for example after late game N it's great to get a Random Receiver from your discard pile.

forthefuturety: Thanks a lot for your encouraging words!

darkwing34: Same here, feel free to say hi to me if you come to Worlds!

Anonymous: Of course I wasn't the first to come up with Hammers. In fact, even Ross.dec was made in Japan before Ross played it in the worlds. I think there really can't be any ideas in Pokémon TCG that no one has ever thought about because the card pool is so small. But the fact is that anyone can come up with an idea, the difficult part is to get the deck working and play it correctly.

Anonymous: Yup, Durant is a real autowin match-up thanks to Sableye.

Thanks for comments and questions everyone and feel free to ask any more questions! Sorry for the late replies, been busy!

The game lasted over 30 minutes so I don't remember all the details about it. And if I only explain the parts I remember it would be a complete mess. I wish someone had taped the games like in last Nationals but that wasn't unfortunately the case this year. You had to be there to see it, sorry!

Woaaaaaah, a little more cocky than you should be, bro. You exaggerate quite a bit... Just be modest and you'll get more respect. It's not like the deck takes any skill to play and the decklist seems quite average to me, but hey; that's the format. Congrats on the win regardless, but you word this blog as though you're the best in the world...

Anonymous1: I think the best way to control the game is to get the Darkrai EX attacking as soon as possible. It's no use to use Sableye stall against decks that can energy accelerate from discard pile. One of the key cards in this deck to enable the early Darkrai is Shaymin because you can move the T1 energy on Sableye to Darkrai in T2.

Anonymous2,3,4: First of all, I would like you to remember the fact that English isn't my native language so everything I say will be experienced by the natives differently. Also, I don't get in which part im being cocky. If it's the top4 game 3., then I don't understand. I played the match without mistakes. That's just stating the facts - not being cocky. I also think the deck is very good. I'm not claiming to be the inventor of the deck, I just believe this deck is among the top2 Darkrai variants in the format. I'm not the best in the world and I have never claimed to be but I know I'm a good player. I've been playing the game for 8 years and I believe that I have learnt a thing or two during those years...

Anonymous: Skyarrow Bridge helps nothing if you start with Darkrai. It only helps with Tornadus EX and since the space is so tight in this deck and Skyarrow Bridge isn't needed, I didn't put it in. I'll get back to all the card choices in my article on Monday.

Thanks for comments and critique everyone, I'll be more careful with my language in my next reports!

Esa, this is your blog, feel free to express yourself :) the guys who called you cocky and "show-off" are probably just jealous that you've won so many nationals and gotten so many travel awards to worlds. And even if you were a little cocky (which I think not) I think you totally deserve the right to do so; who wouldn't feel like a king after winning nationals 6 times? Don't take it to heart, Esa :)

Oh also, I'd really want to question the lack of Switch in your list. I know you want to save deck space, but Switch is just too important in any deck running Dark Patch. Many times I've played with your list and whiffed the Night Spear because of no switch.

Next up, would you mind if I emailed you more questions on this deck and get your replies before my nationals which is next week? Thank you!

Qwerty: Thanks a lot for the nice words, I really appreciate them! Feel free to e-mail me questions regarding anything - I'll answer as soon as possible. However, I'll be making an article of this deck on Monday so there I'll try to answer all the unanswered questions about this deck. I'll try to make the article as informative as possible!

Hey I tried your deck and I only changed 1 juniper for 1 more eviolite. I figured it is a must attach to darkrai due to the proliferation of terrakions in almost every tier 1 decks. I also like attaching eviolites to sableye since after that only a power blast/ boltstrike and other "hard-to-pull-it-off-turn-1" moves can kill it. May I know your opinions? Anyway your deck ROCKS!!!

Ans: Sounds good. Eviolite will keep getting better the more Terrakions are played. However, I like cutting off a PONT more than Juniper. Juniper is in my opinion the best supporter in this deck and you want your Random Receiver to hit Juniper more often than you want it hit PONT. Great to know that it has worked for you as well!

I discussed it with friends and I believe that if played correctly and assuming CMT didnt manage to donk, this deck auto wins any deck except Zekeels and PERHAPS Accelgor/Gothitelle. When I test with Zeels I will tend to crushing hammer the ACTIVE Poke(most likely tornadus ex since zekrom gets destroyed by darkrai) and catcher the eelektrik for the kill. Of course you have to be cautious for terrakion because it takes a great player to play terrakion well.

I have no experience with Accelgor/ Gothitelle though. Is it safe to presume that this deck will most likely be dead? =)

To your reply, what if u wish to use a supporter and cards u wish to conserve like junk arm and catchers are in ur hand and u get a juniper off receiver. more often than not I encountered this and hence I prefer 4 PONT 3 juni and 2 N. I will test it out to see what suits me more =)

Ran a deck similar to this in Cali for 2 Roads so far im 14/0 with 2 first place Roads wins...

Pretty freaking crazy. My favorite part of the deck I would say is sableye. Opponent oppened with t1 tdus and though he had game untill I promoted sableye crushing hammer heads, and enhanced his dce... He was down to no energy I junk hunt for them back next turn rid him down of his forest breath and attach.

I used this deck in a local tournament today, of course with some modifications of my liking but I managed to win all 4 games then made top 8 ( I was the only one who didn't lose) then made it to top 4 but that's when I lost. Zeels deck are very hard to play against when they start with 2, the main reason I lost though was far down because of regigigas ex. it went game 3 and I was 1 turn away from wining. By far though this is my new favourite deck and does have a winning edge over zeels if there is no regigigas ex with eviolite XD